Back surgery, and particularly the diskectomy procedure wherein a herniated disk is removed, has heretofore been difficult and cumbersome to perform due to the geometry of the operative site. Specifically, the operative site comprises a spinal cord, a plurality of vertebrae surrounding the spinal cord along its length, and disk tissue located between the vertebrae and anterior to the spinal cord. In a diskectomy procedure, the herniated disk which has encroached upon the spinal cord is sought to be removed. The disk tissue located on either side of the spinal cord is first severed and removed, then the remaining disk tissue or fragment of disk tissue located anterior to the spinal cord is severed and removed.
The most difficult part of the diskectomy procedure occurs when removing those remaining fragments of disk tissue located between the two vertebrae and anterior to the spinal cord. It will be appreciated that a surgeon's vision or line of sight is impaired in this part of the procedure, since for diskectomies the patient lies prone, and this causes the spinal cord to block the view of that portion of disk tissue or fragment of disk tissue which is sought to be removed.
Further complicating the diskectomy procedure is the rather sinuous nature of disk tissue. This disk tissue can therefore become evasive when a surgeon attempts to grasp or otherwise fixate this disk tissue with, for example, a forceps.